From the Left

The left is critical of the US’s diminishing role on the world stage, and worried about trade talks with China.

From the Right

The right is generally supportive of Trump’s efforts at the summit.

“At most of these G20 meetings, it is less the vast plenary sessions that set the tone and provide the headlines than the one-on-one conferences... But this year, most of these meetings were either removed or downsized at the last minute, leaving Trump curiously muted... Apart from the suspension of the cold war with China, there was little sense that the Trumpian agenda of America First and rest of the world be damned had changed one iota...

"But Trump’s previous demands of China sound less like a man in search of a compromise, [and more like] one seeking total domination — basically, the opposite of ‘win-win’...Plus, Trump sees tariffs as the ultimate bargaining chip, and so far that strategy has proven fairly successful... It doesn’t seem likely he’ll back down against China."

Vox

“The fact that a decision not to go ahead with a new round of tit-for-tat tariffs is seen as some sort of victory speaks volumes about the weakness of international cooperation. Nobody seriously thought the G20 gathering would address any of the global issues it is there to tackle: preventing another financial crisis and co-ordinating a sustainable growth strategy, for example. It turned into the usual excuse for glad-handing and grandstanding for politicians often quite relieved to get away from troubles back at home."

From the Right

The right is generally supportive of Trump’s efforts at the summit.

Trump’s “cease-fire with China is good news for the economy and American workers... The larger message of this truce is that both sides seem to appreciate that an economic Cold War would benefit neither. The Chinese are worried about their slowing and heavily indebted economy, while Mr. Trump needs growth to have a chance at re-election. The incentive to strike a deal is compelling."

"Xi agreed to immediately begin buying more agricultural products from American farmers, along with a pledge to purchase more industrial and energy products...Additionally, China has also agreed to label the opioid fentanyl as a controlled substance, making anyone who sells fentanyl to the U.S. subjected to harsher penalties under Chinese law."

Daily Caller

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“[The latter] is a huge victory for the United States because much of the Fentanyl currently in the country came from China. Synthetic opioid producers in the United States were buying the lethal product from China online and having it shipped overseas. The heightened classification to a controlled substance will hopefully prevent more shipments of Fentanyl to the United States, saving countless American lives."

Independent Journal-Review

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Some, however, worry about “the possibility that there is less to the agreement than it seems. Or even that U.S. officials have heard in Chinese statements what they hoped to hear but not what China actually intended... From the perspective of [China’s] Global Times, Trump essentially agreed to the Chinese perspective on the relations of the two countries...That’s very different from Trump’s own view of the Buenos Aires truce, which he described as ‘an incredible deal’...

“Xi’s statement about ‘two major countries with great influence’ may have special meaning for a Chinese audience familiar with the works of Confucius, one that does not bode well for the notion of future cooperation between the U.S. and China. ‘There cannot two suns in the sky, nor two emperors on earth,’ Confucius said."

Breitbart

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As for Trump’s overall approach to the summit, many note that “the United States muscled in ideas that our current leadership favors, and held out on those that our leadership does not favor. We dictated most of the terms. That is a feature, not a bug. Even if you favor policies this administration doesn't, or don't favor those it does, it means the U.S. was back in the driver's seat, and putting our interests first."